OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of an internet-based method for eliciting population based preferences for generic health states using the standard gamble procedure. METHODS: An internet-based standard gamble utilizing a chance board and a "ping-pong" search procedure was introduced to twenty-five respondents who were primarily recruited via e-mail solicitation. The respondents were asked to elicit their preference for an EQ-5D generic health state (21221). The same set of respondents were asked to elicit their preference for their current health state using a internet-based visual analog scale. RESULTS: Fifty-eight percent of the 25 respondents were male. Eighty percent of the respondents were either health care professionals or academic-based health service researchers, and the remainder were from the general population. The majority of the respondents were White. Four respondents were Hispanic and one was Asian. The mean age of the respondents was 39.7 years. Both the standard gamble and visual analog scale elicitation results were normally distributed (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, p > 0.05). The mean elicited preference for the generic health state using standard gamble was 0.8726 (s.d. 0.095), and the mean visual analog scale elicited preference for the respondents' current health state was 0.8721 (s.d. 0.088). CONCLUSION: An internet-based approach for eliciting preference for a generic health state using a sophiticated standard gamble procedure appears to be an efficient means for performing such inquiry.